News 
Instead of the expected announcement of the results, the ceremony on December 16th at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Le Locle will celebrate Swiss watchmaking precision with conviction.
Technically, the law of mathematics precludes any announcement ceremony, given that after the first eliminatory round, only one watch is still in the competition! The first reaction of the organisers, including professionals from industry as well as major control laboratories, is to question the potentially overly severe rules.
Despite the intentions and keen interest from the brands, the 2019 crop of watches was particularly meagre, even though there had been great initial enthusiasm for these chronometry contests that were revived in 2009 by the city of Le Locle and its watchmaking museum, the Château des Monts. This dynamic had prompted the organisers to extend the registration deadline by one month due to the proximity of the Baselworld calendar.
Nonetheless, an unusual combination of other factors appears to have got the better of good intentions. In some instances, an intellectual property reason made such registration impossible because a model represented the fruit of ongoing research. In others, a technical impossibility prevented a candidate model from being measurable in the same way as others, such as due to the absence of any seconds hand. Finally, there was the case of a registered watch that simply did not show up, or another that was withdrawn at the last minute without any explanation.
October 17, 2019